Campaign finances getting personal

Updated 8:51 pm, Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press

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FILE - In this Feb. 6, 2012 file photo, Molly Munger, a wealthy civil rights attorney and primary advocate behind Proposition 38 on the California ballot, meets with reporters in Sacramento, Calif. Munger, the daughter of wealthy investor Charles Munger Sr., is on the opposite side of the political isle as her half brother, Charles Munger Jr. who is major donor behind Proposition 32, which limits campaign contributions from unions. Both Mungers have spent millions in this election year to transform California's political landscape.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) less

(10-29) 14:35 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Special-interest money is getting downright personal in this year's state election, with four mega-millionaires tossing a combined $125 million into the pot - mostly on initiatives they put on the ballot themselves.

"We've never seen anything like this," said Corey Cook, an associate professor of politics at the University of San Francisco. "We've had the Meg Whitmans spend big on their own races for office, but this is definitely a new twist on the initiative process."

Of the big hitters, nobody - but nobody - beats the Mungers.

Molly Mungerand her half brother, Charles Munger Jr. - the children of Berkshire Hathaway billionaire Charles Munger - have pumped more than $80 million into the Nov. 6 election, according to the nonpartisan research group MapLight.

The biggest hitter is Molly, who has spent $44.1 million of her own money on qualifying and trying to pass Proposition 38, which would raise the state income tax to scoop up more money for schools.

But even with all that cash, the measure appears to be failing.

Charles Jr., a Stanford physicist with a libertarian bent, has contributed $36 million to a committee with the dual aim of defeating a competing tax measure by Gov. Jerry Brownand passing Proposition 32, which would bar unions from using members' dues for politics, MapLight says.

And they aren't the only gazillionaires throwing their wallets around.

Money manager and Stanford trustee Thomas Steyer has spent $29 million, with most of it going into Proposition 39 to close a corporate tax loophole in hopes of netting the state $1 billion a year, according to MapLight.

Then there's Mercury Insurance magnate George Joseph, who has forked over $16.4 million in an effort to rewrite the state's auto insurance rules, Proposition 33.

It's not the first time at the dance for either Charles Munger Jr. or Steyer. Munger popped onto the scene a few years back as a supporter of open primaries and then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's drive to remove redistricting from the Legislature's control.

Steyer, who is active in environmental causes, was a big donor in the successful effort to defeat a 2010 ballot measure that would have suspended the state's new greenhouse gas limits.

East Bay mud: The race between California's longest-sitting congressman, Rep. Pete Stark, and upstart Dublin City Councilman Eric Swalwell is getting uglier by the day.

A search of Stark's campaign records showed that the multimillionaire Democrat from San Lorenzo paid his wife $300,000 to act as his treasurer from 1996 to 2006 - while simultaneously paying an accounting firm to do the same job.

In addition, Stark used campaign money to host a yearly staff appreciation party that featured Mandy the Clown, who also entertained at Stark's children's birthday parties.

The Swalwell campaign has wrapped up all the info and put it on its website under the title, "The Stark Scam."

"It's all a rehash, no story," said Stark campaign manager Michael Terris, who recently hit Swalwell for taking $15,000 in donations from executives of the company that won Dublin's garbage-hauling contract.

"That was all reported up front and properly," Swalwell shot back. "But how about the money Stark got from the medical industry while sitting on the committee that oversees health care?"

And so it goes - with no sign of a letup before election day.

PD got talent: It was a big night for the Orange, Black and Blue at AT&T Park for the World Series opener.

Sgt. Jerry "the Tenderloin Tenor" D'Arcy'srendition of "God Bless America" was a national sensation.

And in the eighth inning, Officers Kevin Martin and Tommy Cunnane found themselves in the spotlight when they were sent over to the club section to keep an eye on things as ex-Journey singer Steve Perry sang "Lights."

When Martin and Cunnane went up to Perry to let him know the plan, the former frontman said, "OK by me, but you guys are singing, too."

When the cops tried to demur, Perry smiled, and just as the music started said, "No, you're singing with me."

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